The Small Queens

Colour

Let’s take the easier ones first. I’ll start with the Ten Cents. Montreal shades vary from lilac through mauve to magenta and purple. Second Ottawa shades run from carmine-pink to brownish red, and from salmon-pink to a pinkish flesh hue. 


Lilac

Carmine Pink

Like that denomination, the Five Cents, introduced in February 1876, can be allocated to Montreal if it is greenish bronze, olive green, or even the wishy washy olive grey found at the end of the period in Montreal.  Ottawa shades have no trace of green in their colour but vary from brownish grey to pale grey. 


Brownish Grey

Olive Green

The diminutive Half-Cent issued in 1882 is a bit more difficult to distinguish by colour, Montreal from Ottawa, although Montreal impressions are generally crisper, because subsequent repairs coarsened the lines of shade; paper is a better guide in this particular case and that is dealt with under that heading. 

The real easy one is the Eight Cents; it was issued in 1893 and all are therefore Second Ottawas. Their colours range from bluish to purplish slate..

Bluish Slate
Bluish Slate
Purplish Slate
Purplish Slate

First Ottawa Three Cents vary from the first printing Copper and Indian reds, through various shades of carmine rose, from deep to pale. All of them, like the Three Cents Large Queen have an underlying blue tone. Montreal printings, with one exception, are all orange reds or dull reds, all of which have a yellow undertone. The only exception is the Rose Carmine, printed in September/October and December 1888 – these were printings made after the lease of the Montreal premises had run out. The revamped building at Wellington Street, Ottawa was not yet ready due to building problems, and the printers were occupying temporary premises on the fourth floor of the Gazette Building in Montreal, a paper owned by one of their major shareholders. Second Ottawa Three Cents are vermilion in colour, with a large proportion printed with aniline ink, which shows a pink flush on the back (fluoresces yellow under UV light).

Indian Red
Indian Red
Carmine Rose
Rose Carmine
Deep Rose
Deep Rose
Rose Red
Rose Red

First Ottawa One Cent shades are orange or orange-yellow with the orange being predominant. Early Montreals are orange-yellow with yellow predominant; lemon-yellow, bright yellow and yellow-ochre are all to be found from the later period. Second Ottawas show little difference from late Montreal bright yellow, one also finds a yellow-orange – here paper is a better guide than shade to determine where the later stamps were printed.

Orange
Orange
Yellow Orange
Orange Yellow
Bright Orange
Bright Yellow

The Two Cents has similar problems where later printings in green are concerned, but blue-greens and dull sea green  (a slightly yellowish shade)  are from the Second Ottawa Period. First Ottawa shades are softish in colour while Montreal greens tend to be hard. Again, perforation and paper may be a better guide.

Soft Green
Soft Green
Hard Green
Hard Green

The Six Cents, issued a month before the Two, in January 1872, shows shades of yellow brown for First Ottawa and Montreal, and red-brown, chestnut or chocolate for Second Ottawa. There is a distinctive dark yellow brown from the early Montreal Period, in this case 1874, but while to me the First Ottawa colour is warmer than those that followed, subjective descriptions can be misleading, and the only way to separate the two is with perforation measurement.

Chestnut
Chestnut
Chocolate
Chocolate